I posted this message, originally, on another website which is now defunct. Comments were few. I post it again here in the hope of fresh commentary.
Did Jane Austen conceive of Charlotte Lucas as a lesbian? The next time you dip into P&P, carefully examine every conversation, every transaction, every authorial comment involving Charlotte, and ask yourself: could this woman be in love with Elizabeth Bennet? What is her subtext when she tells Lizzie, you mean as much to me as my own father and sister? Why is she so anxious to keep up the friendship after Lizzie, deeply disappointed in her, seems inclined to let it drop? What does it imply, that she has "no high opinion of men or of matrimony"?
I hope no-one will dismiss this as some fashionable, new-age interpretation of Dear Auntie Jane's text; there is nothing 'new-age' about lesbianism, or bisexuality, which category includes myself; Jane Austen understood the facts of life very well indeed.
Why would Jane Austen imagine Miss Lucas as a lesbian? The first, short answer would be: because she could! Her sense of humour was mischievous and broad-minded. This is an author, remember, who could give us at least three - possibly as many as five - major female characters bonking outside of marriage (the Bertram sisters; Lydia Bennet; Lady Vernon; Isabella Thorp). She could crack a joke about Lydia Bennet going on the game, put a smutty joke about "rears and vices" into Mary Crawford's mouth, and make off-colour wordplay with the names 'Richard', 'John', and 'Thomas' in her letters. She spent a significant chunk of her life in bed with other women. She understood.
The second answer might be: because it softens the implications of Charlotte's marriage to Mr Collins. He is repellent, but comfortably-off, well-connected, and future master of Longbourn. Moreover, he is not romantic, and seems unlikely to make excessive amorous demands (so Charlotte might reason). An aversion to heterosexual intercourse would probably be interpreted by him (she would hope) as a becoming, virtuous distaste for carnality. Thus he might be encouraged to moderate his demands even further. For a 27-year-old lesbian contemplating a lifelong spinsterhood in genteel poverty, such a "lie back and think of England" marriage might not seem like such a bad option; and I hope naive, idealistic Lizzie would (eventually) overcome her prejudice and forgive her for taking it.
